The Crimson Petal and the White review

[alobear]

The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber is a big, chunky epic of a book, about a Victorian prostitute trying to improve her lot in life.  I don't know whether it was just because it was thick, with very white page and a red cover, but it reminded me a little of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.  The tone was quite light throughout, which made it quite quick to read, but also made the darker sections more effective.  The initial conceit of the narrator physically depositing the reader into the story as a phantom observer was cleverly done and led to an intriguing start, but the "you"s and "I"s of the narrative sensibly faded away as the plot took hold.

There was a great deal in the book to entertain, and a great deal to inform - the world of Victorian London is intricately and intimately drawn, with no shying away from the less attractive aspects, be they the personal circumstances of the cheapest whore, the fate of a woman suffering from an illness medicine has yet to diagnose correctly, or the loneliness of a child entirely ignored by her parents in a rich household.

The ending was rather abrupt and left me scratching my head rather for a while after finishing the book.  However, I have now come to the conclusion that a lack of detail about what ultimately happened to Sugar was a good thing.  Since her aim in the book was to get a better life, and most readers' ideas as to what that life might be like would be different, the enigmatic conclusion allows each reader to supply whatever detail they choose, depending on how practical or romantic their imaginings.

Comments

[lareinemisere.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether that was Faber's reasoning at the time, but it appears to have been since. He subsequently published a book of short stories called 'The Apple', of which two involve Sugar before the events of 'Petal' and one is written from the point of view of someone remembering her afterwards, who doesn't know where she went.